Spain Small Group Trips

Excellent but challenging hiking tour of Gran Canaria. Never expected such beauty. We were lucky to have excellent weather throughout the trip and the island had heavy rain in the fall making for an unusually green landscape. The six hikes were each a bit different as far as terrain and environment and all were wonderful. Our tour leader was very knowledgeable and experienced and always attentive. David was very organized and clear. As per the itinerary, we covered a lot of ground, averaging over 8 miles each day. Elevation gains and losses were significant so could be a struggle if one isn’t in good shape. The paths frequently had loose cobble, rough surfaces and slippery spots so one had to pay attention at all times. We had a great group and everyone seemed to get along very well making this one of my favorite Explore trips. I look forward to going to others of the Canary Islands.

Having really enjoyed the Explore hiking trip on La Gomera in January 2025, we came back for more on Gran Canaria in January 2026. The hotel in the casco historico of sleepy Aguimes was charming, albeit the breakfasts were rather basic and the double beds only 1.40m wide (we are used to 2m at home!). In contrast, the hotel in Altea lacked a certain charm, but had a super bed and a terrific breakfast. Our very affable and multi-lingual Explore leader, Brian, ensured some good extra activities (eg making goat’s cheese) and gave the group plenty of options for the free day. We rested our knees on this free day and went to the excellent Bodega Los Berrazales, a wine and coffee finca, in the Agaete valley as well as visiting, briefly before it had really woken up, Puerto de las Nieves; Brian’s information on the punctual but not very frequent public buses was spot on for this non hiking jaunt). The astronomy talk over one of the dinners at a farm outside Aguimes was a bit comical with half the slides in Spanish and an astronomer with shaky English. Dinners were not included in the tour but Brian always arranged dinners at interesting restaurants. He was at pains to describe aspects of Canarian history, culture and geology throughout the tour. The Museo Guayadque in the Guayadque Ravine (Gorge?) was fascinating. For me, also as a keen student of the Spanish language and all things Hispanic, these were just as important as purely the hiking. The hiking, and the views the hikes offered, were indeed pretty spectacular. We may have been lucky with the weather with a lot of sun at a very pleasant temperature. Apparently it had rained quite a bit the week before, so a number of areas were quite verdant. Described as moderate, the terrain, both in terms of sharp volcanic rockiness as well as steepness, both up and down, was quite tough for non-regular hikers, such as me, a 64 year old (albeit twice a week gym goer).

Excellent trip over Christmas week 2025. La Gomera is a lovely, peaceful, rural island for walking with delicious food as well (and large portions of it!). The walking is reasonably varied with a bit of up and down, but not really demanding. I wish I had taken my poles as some of the downhill after rain was quite muddy albeit nothing serious. Our tour leader, Bert Palmen, was a superb host, guide and organiser and very funny! Strongly recommend this trip.

Absolutely fabulous trip. Our trip leader Raquel was superb. I can’t speak highly enough of her. She was so knowledgeable and enthusiastic about the landscape and led us on many varied walks sharing her extensive knowledge. The trip was well organised with good accommodation and private transport for the most part. It was also interesting to experience the public transport on the mountainous roads and see some local towns and villages. Dining options were good and we experienced both local and world cuisine. The group size was ideal and we were extremely lucky to have a great group of fellow walkers. The grading of the holiday was accurate in our view, with both easier and more challenging elements. It was our first holiday with Explore but will definitely not be our last. Excellent.

A really enjoyable time spent on a beautiful island with a lovely group of people. The walking was quite strenuous as it was mostly climbing up or climbing down but our group leader Bert was very knowledgeable and excellent at managing the whole group so that everyone was happy and safe. It was lovely to be sat in a Square surrounded by palm trees on a warm and sunny Christmas Day having a drink after a day’s walking and it was good to finish with a trip to Mount Teide on Tenerife as we had seen its snow covered peak from La Gomera all week.

The itinerary offered a good variety of walks and the tour leader Burt was interesting and entertaining with a lot of local knowledge. La Gomera is a lovely place, much more authentic than the busy resorts on many of the other Canary islands